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Female readers, please email me with the top five things you look for when buying a car, be it new or used

I may rapidly be turning into the Germaine Greer of the car world but, you know what, so be it; she’s not so bad. I’ve always been bemused by feminist stuff, preferring a gender-neutral approach, but then I realised how little the car world understands women, and that it cares even less. No one wants to actively market to women, no one wants to make car shows female-friendly – and no one wants to discuss it.

So it may well be that this column turns into a tub-thumping weekly polemic about women and cars, and a lone voice in the wilderness at that, in which case the editor will probably sack me, but I’ll go out Emily Davison-style (didactic, not under King George V’s horse) which, as she’s all over celluloid this month, is at least timely.

In the meantime: mammograms. Whoa, stay with me; it gets weirder. Mammograms, and the National Hot Rod Association (NHRA). Female fans attending either the Texas meet in Dallas or the Toyota Nationals in Las Vegas can receive a free mammogram in a “mammovan”, a mobile unit supported by Funny Car winner Alexis DeJoria and Toyota. American fans don’t need health insurance to get their mammogram, the mammovan is there with the blessing of the state’s health centres, and results are sent out 10 days later.

Absolutely great. Why? Because it’s a useful, innovative, potentially life-saving way to recognise women in the world of cars. Not recognise them as in marking their achievements, but recognising them as in acknowledging their existence.

Drag racer Alexis DeJoria is promoting a potentially life-saving way to recognise women in the car world

The British car industry, meanwhile, sticks its fingers in its ears. So afraid are manufacturers of being seen to patronise women that they shout very loudly about NOT actively recognising women, preferring a gender-neutral approach in which all customers are equal.

But it’s not a gender-neutral industry. It’s not the film industry, or the supermarket industry, or travel, or education, recruitment, or fashion: it’s a phalanx of men in boardrooms, men in dealerships, men in factories, men in garages. Men design, develop, build, finance, market and sell cars. Yes, there are a few women scattered about, but token efforts all the way.

All this would be pathetic enough, but pretty shrug-of-shoulders, if women didn’t buy cars, or didn’t care about what car they drove. But we know they buy them now more than ever, are more financially independent than ever and with more money to spend. We know that there will soon be more female licence-holders than male in the UK and that women make the decision on which car the household buys in far, far more cases than men.

So why the hell are they being ignored by manufacturers? Women: I want to know what matters to you when choosing a car to buy. Your top five priorities. It could be safety, price, looks, steering wheel, stereo, satnav, power…

Email me your list. It’ll take you five minutes tops. Please.

erin.baker@telegraph.co.uk

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